


Seto Kaiba (Does Not) Need Help Baking

by breadrobin



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Baking, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Relationship, there is something so intimate about your enemy teaching you how to bake, there's subtext for joey and seto but seto is repressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26332615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadrobin/pseuds/breadrobin
Summary: “Any idiot with a decent recipe can bake,” he sniped. Joey looked at him, a scowl appearing on his face.“Oh yeah? What have you ever baked before?” he challenged. Seto tensed and glared at Joey. After a moment, he responded.“Why would I ever bake? I can pay people to bake for me,” he finally said.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler & Kaiba Seto, Kaiba Mokuba & Kaiba Seto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	Seto Kaiba (Does Not) Need Help Baking

**Author's Note:**

> your eyes are correct, it is the year 2020 and you are reading a yugioh fanfiction. enjoy

Seto sighed loudly as his little brother excitedly pulled him down the sidewalk and towards a grocery store.

“Mokuba, I pay other people to go shopping for me, so I don’t have to mingle with the common idiots,” he complained. Mokuba merely snickered and tugged him through the automatic doors. 

“Come on, Seto! Tanjiro brought homemade cupcakes to class the other day and they were delicious! He said they were really easy to make, and I thought it would be fun to make with you.”

Seto sighed again, but he allowed stifled any other complaints. He had been busier than normal at work lately, so he hadn’t had a lot of time to spend with Mokuba. He felt guilty about neglecting his little brother, which was why he was letting himself be dragged through a generic plebeian grocery store. 

“What ingredients do we need? I pay enough to have the kitchen fully stocked at all times,” he commented dryly. 

Mokuba rolled his eyes as he led Seto through the aisles. 

“We need decorations!” he exclaimed. At Seto’s raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “Y’know, like sprinkles? And different colored frosting! We can even get fancy cupcake liners.”

“And where do we find these decorations?” Seto asked. Mokuba looked around at the aisle they had stopped in. They were surrounded by paper towels and cleaning supplies.

“Um. . .” Mokuba said, a small frown forming on his face. He turned around in a circle, then stopped. He looked up at Seto, a wide smile breaking over his face.

“No idea!” he exclaimed.

Seto sighed once more. 

Nearly ten minutes later, they found themselves in the baking aisle. It should not have taken ten minutes, Seto mused, because of the very clearly laid out signs labeling what was in each aisle, but Mokuba was very easily distracted by shiny and fluffy things. 

Mokuba was chattering away as he grabbed various decorating supplies from the shelves and putting them into Seto’s arms. As the pile in his arms grew higher and higher, Seto realized that they probably should have gotten a basket. However, it was too late now. 

“Kaiba? Mokuba?”

Seto stiffened as a familiar voice came from behind him. He slowly turned around and came face to face with Joey Wheeler. He pasted a scowl on his face and raised an eyebrow. 

“What do you want, mutt?” he sneered.

For some reason, Joey didn’t look intimidated. That might have been due to the fact that Seto’s arms were full of various sparkly and colorful decorating equipment. 

“Ya need a hand?” Joey asked, holding out his basket that was hanging on his arms. Seto tightened his arms on his hoard. 

“Unlike some people, I’m not weak enough to need a basket to carry some meager supplies.”

He felt a sense of amusement as Joey’s face started to turn red in outrage at the slight against his strength. Before he said anything, Mokuba butted in.

“Hey, Joey!” he said, popping in front of Seto, holding his own share of decorations. That drew Joey’s attention away from Seto, and he fought down a wash of disappointment when Joey broke eye contact with him. 

“Heya, kid!” Joey greeted. “Whatcha up to?”

“Seto and I are gonna make homemade cupcakes!”

“No kiddin’? So am I!” Joey exclaimed. “It’s Tristan’s birthday tomorrow and I usually bake him somethin’.”

Seto looked at Joey’s basket, which contained flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. 

“You know how to bake?” Mokuba asked.

“Sure do,” Joey responded, giving Mokuba a thumbs up. Seto rolled his eyes. 

“Any idiot with a decent recipe can bake,” he sniped. Joey looked at him, a scowl appearing on his face. 

“Oh yeah? What have you ever baked before?” he challenged. Seto tensed and glared at Joey. After a moment, he responded. 

“Why would I ever bake? I can pay people to bake for me,” he finally said. Joey bristled and tightened his hand into a fist. Before a real argument could break out, Mokuba interrupted again.

“Is baking really hard? My classmate said he’s been baking ever since he was younger, but we’ve never made anything before.”

Seto frowned after Mokuba confirmed they were inexperienced at baking. While it was true, the mutt didn’t need to know that. 

Again, Joey’s attention was distracted from Seto. Seto noticed that he had a very short attention span when it came to anything besides dueling. And even then, it was hit or miss. 

“I mean, kinda?” Joey responded. “Baking can be a ‘lil tricky ‘cause you’ve really gotta stick to your recipe or else you’ll screw it up. But if you’ve got a good enough recipe you should be fine.”

Seto saw Mokuba’s face fall.

“Recipe?” he questioned.

If Seto’s arms hadn’t been full, he would have pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Joey started to panic when he saw Mokuba’s sad face. 

“Hey now, don’t panic! You can find a recipe online pretty easy. I got one memorized for a chocolate cupcake recipe that’s pretty easy. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Mokuba shot Seto a calculating look that made him tense up. That look was far too similar to the one he regularly gave opponents right before he exploited a very obvious weakness. He didn’t appreciate being on the other end of that look. 

Mokuba then looked at Joey and widened his eyes dramatically.

“Would you help us, Joey? I don’t want our first time baking to be a failure,” he said, sticking out his bottom lip. Joey’s entire face softened, and Seto sensed that he was falling for Mokuba’s obvious trick. 

Alright, it was time to stop this nonsense before it even began. 

“We don’t need any help from the mutt,” Seto protested. “He won’t be able to teach us anything.”

Mokuba nudged him in the leg, hard, but Seto refused to wince as Joey’s angry gaze met his. However, as he saw Joey’s face morph expressions, he felt trepidation start to grow within him. He recognized that look as Joey’s determined expression, the one he usually pulled out when he had been challenged and was going to proceed to do his best to prove the other person wrong.

Seto refused to examine why he had so many of the mutt’s facial expressions memorized. 

“Sure, Mokuba,” Joey stated, with his teeth bared at Seto. “I’d love to help you guys.”

“Awesome!” Mokuba said.

“Absolutely not,” Seto said. “I refuse to let this dweeb in our home. He might give us fleas.”

Joey gave Seto a calculating look, with mischief dancing in his brown eyes. 

“Now, Kaiba,” he drawled, “ya wouldn’t wanna disappoint your little brother, would you?”

Seto internally cursed as Mokuba proceeded to turn his wide eyes towards him. Although he had lived with his little brother for his whole life, he unfortunately hadn’t developed a complete immunity to those sad eyes. In hindsight, this was a grave mistake. 

He had two options. Let Joey Wheeler into his house, where he could discover any number of vulnerabilities, to teach him to bake. Or, refuse, and have a sad and upset Mokuba.

He sighed yet again, then proceeded to turn around and walk towards the checkout. 

“Let’s get this over with.”  
________________________________________  
“Holy shit!” Joey exclaimed as he followed the Kaiba brothers into their kitchen. He put his grocery bags onto the marble countertop and started zooming around the opulent space, eyes wide and nearly sparkling. 

Some might have found this adorable. Seto Kaiba was not some. 

“Quit running around like a chicken with its head cut off,” he said, putting down his own grocery bags. “If you trip and get hurt in my kitchen you have to clean up any mess you make.”

Joey turned his head to respond, which caused him to not notice the edge of the counter he was heading straight towards. Before he could respond with what was no doubt a witting retort, he ran straight into the counter, the edge digging harshly into his stomach. 

Joey let out a wheeze and held his stomach in pain. At this moment, Mokuba toddled into the kitchen, weighed down by his several heavy grocery bags. 

“Joey? Are you okay?” Mokuba huffed, dropping his bags on the ground. Joey held up a single wobbly thumbs up, still doubled over. Seto snorted. 

“So, if you’re so great at baking, get started,” he commanded. Joey was apparently recovered enough to glare at him and give him the middle finger. 

“If you ain’t paying me, you don’t get to give me orders,” he said. Seto rolled his eyes as Mokuba giggled. Traitor. 

“First things first, what kinda cupcakes we makin’? Chocolate? Vanilla? Funfetti?”

Seto fought the urge to ask what the fuck funfetti was.

“I thought you said you knew a chocolate cupcake recipe?” Mokuba asked, tilting his head in confusion. 

“That’s the thing! It’s real easy to change some stuff around and change the flavor!” Joey said, flashing a wide smile at Mokuba. Seto found himself annoyed at Joey’s stupidly shiny teeth.

“Cool!” Mokuba exclaimed. Seto wondered if his little brother was too sheltered if he thought being able to change a cupcake flavor was impressive. 

“What kind of cupcakes do you want, Seto?” Mokuba asked. Seto thought about a tray of gourmet cupcakes Pegasus had sent him months ago, along with a hand-written invitation to his island. He had eaten three cupcakes and ripped up the invitation, then burned it. 

“Red velvet,” he declared. 

Joey immediately scowled. 

“Not red velvet,” he replied. Seto found himself offended that his cupcake flavor had been rejected so quickly.

“Why not?” he questioned. 

“Red velvet is just fancy chocolate!” Joey exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. “Why wouldn’t we just make chocolate?”

Apparently, Joey had very strong opinions against red velvet. Which meant that Seto now had very strong opinions for red velvet. 

“You asked what flavor. I want red velvet,” he said, looking into Joey’s eyes and daring him to disagree. 

Joey dared.

“No,” he responded.

“Yes,” Seto snarled.

“No!”

“Mokuba!” Seto exclaimed, turning around and looking at his little brother. “What kind of cupcakes do you want?”

“Yeah, Mokuba, what kind?” Joey echoed, hands on his hips. 

Mokuba looked at both of them, his expression guarded. Seto narrowed his eyes at him. After a moment of hesitation, Mokuba finally spoke.

“I like red velvet,” he said with a definitive nod. Joey groaned and Seto shot him a smug look. 

“Fine,” Joey said, then proceeded to rummage around Seto’s kitchen, looking for ingredients. Seto, on principle, refused to tell him where anything was. He also knew that Joey would refuse to ask, on principle. Mokuba sat on the stool by the counter and opened a can of frosting, then stuck a spoon in it. 

“Mokuba,” he said. Mokuba looked at him, a spoonful of bright pink frosting inches from his face. Seto simply looked at him and spoke.

“No.”

Mokuba pouted but put the cap on the frosting and went to put the spoon in the sink. Seto heard a quiet laugh, and he turned to make eye contact with Joey, who had a small smile on his face. He felt his own face heat up and looked away, pushing away a blush that hinted at feelings he refused to have. This was why he insulted Joey, because he looked stupid when he smiled, and he always somehow infected Seto with his stupidity. 

That was his theory and he was sticking with it. 

Eventually, there was a pile of ingredients piled haphazardly on his counter.

“So the first thing you gotta do is preheat your oven,” he said. Mokuba nodded, expression serious. Joey walked over to their oven and looked intently at it. 

He proceeded to just look at the oven for a full minute. 

Eventually, he hung his head in shame. 

“How the hell does your oven work?”

Seto snickered. 

“I thought you were the baking expert?” he mocked, walking over. Joey frowned at him.

“You guys have a stupidly complicated oven,” he stated bitterly. 

“I’m sure everything is ‘stupidly complicated’ when you’re an idiot,” Seto said. Joey spluttered in outrage as Seto looked over the oven. In truth, he had never touched the machine, but he would be damned if he let Joey know that. 

“What temperature does it need to be at?” he asked. 

“Three-fifty,” Joey responded, his voice annoyed. Seto nodded, then proceeded to poke buttons. Somehow, out of pure determination, he managed to succeed. The oven beeped and flashed the number three-hundred-fifty. Seto stood up straight and sent Joey a smug look. Joey huffed, then turned and walked towards the counter.

“Thanks,” he eventually said. Then, brightening, he turned to Mokuba and began speaking again. 

“Now we’re gonna separate the egg whites and beat them with an electric mixer. You guys got one of those?” 

At Mokuba’s nod, he continued speaking. 

“While I do that, you guys can mix together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt together.”

Seto and Mokuba looked at the pile of ingredients on the counter, then looked at Joey. Joey sighed.

“I’ll measure them out for you and put ‘em into bowls.”

“Thanks, Joey!” Mokuba said.

Seto considered also thanking him, but then discarded the idea. Joey was in his house, using his kitchen and his ingredients. If anything, Joey should be thanking Seto.

After measuring and sorting the ingredients, Joey put a large bowl in front of Mokuba. 

“Alright kid, you throw those together while I whip the egg whites.”

Seto stood there, feeling slighted and ignored. He cleared his throat and Joey looked over at him. 

“Kaiba, you can uh, help your brother,” he said dismissively. Seto felt himself bristle at the tone being used towards him. 

“You help my brother, I’ll beat the egg whites,” he said. 

“You sure?” Joey said. “You gotta beat them to stiff peaks, until they foam up and hold their shape.”

“Yes, I know,” Seto snapped. Joey gave him a dubious look, which was honestly fair, considering that Seto had not known that ten seconds ago. 

Seto lifted his nose into the air and said, “Why don’t you focus on your job, mutt, and try to not make a mess of my kitchen?”

“Maybe I’ll spill some shit on purpose,” Joey taunted. Seto went to respond, but he was interrupted when Mokuba spoke up.

“Could you guys flirt later? I wanna make the cupcakes now,” he said, swinging his legs on the stool.

Seto felt his face start to burn. Looking over, he saw that Joey’s face was in a similar state. 

“Wha-we’re not, I mean, I don’t,” Joey spluttered, looking like he was about to hyperventilate. 

Mokuba, for his part, looked very proud of himself. Seto scowled at his little brother. 

“Mokuba, shut up,” he said, turning around to the bowl and mixer. He violently cracked open the first egg and immediately got egg white all over his hands. Scowling harder, he ignored the looks of both Mokuba and Joey as he stomped to the other side of the kitchen to wipe his hands off on a paper towel. 

Stomping back, he noticed that Joey was also steadfastly ignoring any eye contact that could be made. For some reason, that annoyed him even more.

He once again cracked the egg open, albeit a little more gently. He carefully separated the egg whites, determined to not make a fool of himself. After he had separated them into the bowl, he dug around and found the mixer, then turned it on. 

With the mixer going, he could barely hear anything behind him, but he recognized the low tones of Joey and the higher tones of Mokuba, whispering quietly and intermittently laughing. He kept whipping the whites until they foamed, then they began to get white and creamy. Seto wondered if this was a good time to admit he had no idea what the words “peaks” had meant as Joey used it. Before he could consider asking, however, he could feel Joey start to approach him from behind. Soon, the other boy was right next to him, dangerously close. Seto held his breath as Joey peeked over his shoulder, close enough that Seto could hear him breath. 

“Looks good, Kaiba!” Joey exclaimed. He then clapped Seto on the back, startling him. If Seto had been any weaker, that blow would have sent him staggering a bit. 

He whipped around and glared at Joey, who just smiled widely at him. Seto went to rip into him, until he noticed all around him was a thin haze of white powder. He became still as he then looked down to Joey’s hand that had slapped him on the back. 

Joey’s hand looked to be covered in white powder. 

“Mutt,” he eventually said, voice dangerous and low. “Is there currently flour on the back of my very, very expensive jacket?”

In a smart move, for once, Joey started to slowly back away, with his expression transforming into one of fear. Seto then followed him, advancing threateningly. 

Mokuba watched, seemingly entertained. 

“Joseph Wheeler,” he intoned, voice dark. The use of his full name made Joey go white in the face, and he seemed to realize the danger that his very, very stupid prank had put him in. He took another step backwards and his back hit the cupboard, making him stop in his tracks. 

Trapped.

Seto took another step closer, until he was in Joey’s personal space. 

“Is there flour on my back?” Seto asked once more. He saw Joey’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed deeply. 

Mokuba, who had gotten up and grabbed a juice pouch at some point, slurped his drink loudly.

Joey closed his eyes, swallowed once more, then opened them again. Seto had a moment to recognize the look in Joey’s eyes as the one he got before he was about to do something idiotic. 

Then, a flash of white covered his vision and he felt something connect with his chest. 

Behind him, Mokuba choked on his drink.

The white flash, which Seto recognized again as flour, cleared enough so Seto could see Joey’s shit-eating grin. He looked down to his chest, where Joey was retracting his still flour-covered hand from his chest. 

And there, on Seto’s designer black turtleneck, was a white handprint courtesy of the soon-to-be deceased Joey Wheeler.   
“Now you got some on your front too,” Joey explained cheerfully. Before Seto could express his outrage, Joey ducked around him quickly and ran out of the kitchen.

Seto silently turned around, his eye twitching with outrage. He made eye contact with Mokuba, who had finished his drink. Mokuba grinned at him, then held out the open container of bright pink frosting he had picked up earlier, a large spoon shoved in it. 

Seto stomped over and snatched it from his hand, then strode out of the kitchen.

“JOEY!” he roared, furious. He heard Joey’s strangled squawk coming from about a room away, then gave chase. 

From the kitchen, he heard Mokuba giggle maniacally.  
________________________________________  
A little more than half an hour later, they had a batch of red velvet and Tristain’s chocolate cupcakes baking.

Joey and Seto were seated at stools with Mokuba in between them, both determinedly not looking at each other. Joey’s hair, face, and shirt were all covered in pink frosting. Seto, on the other hand, had changed out his flour-covered shirt and jacket for a blue turtleneck and had washed off a glob of pink frosting that Joey had lobbed back at him during their impromptu fight. 

Mokuba had caused the fight to end when he had yelled out, “Seto, you’ve let me alone in the kitchen with the oven on! Not very safe!” 

Joey had slipped out of Seto’s grasp when the other boy had been distracted by Mokuba and had darted into the kitchen. He had then used Mokuba as a human shield until Seto promised to put the frosting down. 

After that, they both worked in stilted silence, each glaring at each other whilst baking. 

Eventually the tension in the kitchen had lessened and they worked in a more companionable silence. Joey would speak up to instruct them and Mokuba would ask questions, Seto providing the occasional commentary. 

It had been unusually peaceful and domestic. He would never admit it even if there was a gun to his head, but a small part of him had enjoyed it. 

Suddenly, the oven dinged. Joey shot out of his stool and opened the oven. He could be unusually fast when food was involved. 

Joey slipped on the oven mitts and grabbed each tray. He whirled around, grasping each cupcake tray in each hand. 

“Ta-da!” he exclaimed. Mokuba gave a polite clap while Seto rolled his eyes. Joey placed the trays on top of the oven while Mokuba excitedly jumped up from his stool. 

“Time to decorate!” he cried, quickly grabbed several different colors of frosting and sprinkles. 

“Not yet, kid,” Joey refuted. “You gotta wait for them to cool first, otherwise the frostin’ is gonna melt right off.”

“Oh, okay,” Mokuba said, dropping the supplies he had gathered. Seto’s eye twitched at the loud crashing noises. 

“Oops,” Mokuba laughed. He shot Seto a sheepish look. “Sorry, Seto.”

Joey laughed and Seto rolled his eyes. 

“You guys got a pan to decorate on?” Joey asked. 

“Why wouldn’t we just decorate them on the plate they’ll be served on?” Seto questioned. 

“I assume you’ll be usin’ sprinkles.”

At Seto’s dry look, Joey amended his statement.

“I assume Mokuba will be usin’ sprinkles. Easier to catch on a pan and then dump out. On a plate you’ll make a mess on the counter. Speakin’ from experience.”

That had actually been a fair answer. Seto just hummed in response. He simply pointed to a cupboard near the oven. Joey opened it and pulled out a large metal pan. He put it on the counter and began carefully pulling the cupcakes out of the tin, then gently setting them on the pan. 

As he pulled them out, Seto studied his face. Joey was a very expressive person. It was as if he didn’t know how to hide or mask any of his emotions. Shock, anger, joy, and fear were all expressed right away. 

Seto, on the other hand, tried his best to never show what he was feeling or thinking. Any insight into his emotions could be exploited and used against him. 

Right now, Joey’s face was determined and concentrated. His brown eyes were focused intently on pulling the pastries out, careful not to damage them. 

It was funny, Seto thought, how Joey could be so rough-and-tumble and so clumsy, yet he could be almost absurdly gentle sometimes. The dichotomy of his touches was expressed when he was around his different friends. With Tristan, they were always wrestling and scuffling about. On the other hand, with Yugi, he would playfully ruffle his hair, but Seto could tell he was holding back in order to not cause Yugi any discomfort. 

Seto could count the amount of times Joey had physically touched him on one hand, and they were usually the direct result of Joey’s temper getting out of hand. Seto wondered what it would be like to be Joey’s friend, where he would be comfortable enough to offer casual touches. 

Seto then promptly squashed that thought as Joey turned around. Seto forced himself to be expressionless as Joey made eye contact with him. 

“Cupcakes should be cooled enough to frost,” Joey announced. Mokuba whooped with joy as he brought the pan over. 

“What color are you gonna do, Seto?” Mokuba asked. Seto looked over the array of frosting they had bought. 

“White?” he tried. Both Mokuba and Joey made groaning noises. 

“Seto!” Mokuba cried, “that’s boring.”

“Yeah, Kaiba,” Joey agreed. “You gotta do somethin’ more creative than that.”

Seto sighed, then considered his options. 

“Would it be acceptable if I put some sprinkles on it?”

“Yeah!” twin cries of agreement rung out from his little brother and Joey. 

He picked out a vanilla package and began carefully frosting a cupcake. If he was doing this he was at least doing to do it well.

Beside him, Mokuba was working very intently on a single cupcake. Joey had already decorated one with bright red frosting and black shiny sprinkles. Now, he was currently working on one with lavender frosting. 

Seto drew his attention back to his own cupcake and carefully spread the frosting on it. After deciding it was adequately frosted, he surveyed the sprinkles they had. He chose some metallic silver sugar crystals to sprinkle lightly over his cupcake. Then, he was done. It was a pretty good-looking cupcake, as well. 

“Seto!” Mokuba suddenly cried, catching his attention. “Look!” He thrust his cupcake into Seto’s line of vision. 

Seto was met with a veritable mess of white and blue, scrambled together in some kind of shape. 

After staring at it for nearly a full minute, he gave up. 

“Mokuba, what am I looking at?”

Mokuba’s face fell comically fast. 

“It’s Blue-Eyes!” he said. 

Seto took another full minute looking at the shape. 

“No, it’s not,” he replied. He felt a little bad at Mokuba’s crestfallen face, but he had to be told the truth. Seto wasn’t one to coddle. 

“Aw, come one, Kaiba,” Joey piped up. “Don’t be so hard on the kid.” 

He leaned over and studied Mokuba’s cupcake, then pointed to a certain area. 

“See! There’s the face!”

Mokuba’s face turned into a pout. 

“That’s the tail,” he said, sulking. Joey winced, then shrugged. 

“You might wanna add more sprinkles, kid. Sprinkles always make cupcakes look better.”  
Mokuba considered this, then proceeded to dump nearly half a bottle of light blue sprinkles on his cupcake.

“Better?” he asked. 

Seto studied the cupcake. 

“Yes,” he replied. Mokuba stuck his tongue out at him and grabbed another cupcake to work on. Seto set aside his finished cupcake and grabbed another one to frost. 

They passed the time like that, each of them meticulously working on decorating and then moving on to the next cupcake. It was peaceful, and Seto found himself relaxing. 

Soon, all of the cupcakes had been frosted. Seto observed them all displayed on the plate. There were three distinct styles of cupcakes. His own were fairly simple, with minimal sprinkle usage. Mokuba’s were very. . . artful. He had used plenty of different colors and sprinkles on each cupcake he decorated. Joey’s were actually very pretty, to Seto’s surprise. They were artfully frosted and the sprinkles he used complemented the frosting color he used. 

“Now what?” he asked. 

“Now,” Joey responded, “we eat!”

Seto went to reach for a cupcake, but Mokuba gave a noise of distress, causing him to pause. 

“Seto, eat one of mine!” he said. 

Seto fought the urge to roll his eyes, but dutifully grabbed a cupcake that had frosting double its height.

Joey and Mokuba also grabbed cupcakes. Seto brought his closer to his mouth and took a small bite. Joey and Mokuba did the same. 

After he swallowed, he opened his mouth to speak. 

“It’s. . .”

“Good!” Mokuba interrupted. He sounded awed. “Joey, they taste good!”

“Yeah,” Joey replied, taking another bite. “Turned out pretty good for your first time baking.”  
Mokuba swung around to face Seto, his smile beaming. Seto felt a wash of affection for his little brother wash over him. He allowed a small smile to creep over his face. 

He looked up to see Joey staring intently at him. Immediately, his smile slid off his face and he felt his face start to heat up at Joey’s intense stare. 

For the first time, he had no idea what that look on Joey’s face meant. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. 

Joey turned away fast, but Seto thought he caught a hint of pink on his cheeks. 

“I should probably head out,” he announced. He went to the oven and grabbed his tray of undecorated chocolate cupcakes. “This was fun, though.”

“Thanks for helping us, Joey!” Mokuba said, jumping next to Seto. He gave Seto a hard look as Joey walked closer to them. 

“Yes. . .” Seto said. “What Mokuba said.”

Joey snorted as he stopped in front of them. 

“Is that your way of sayin’ thanks?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow. 

“What do you think?” Seto replied. Joey just studied him for a minute, his brown eyes roving over Seto’s face. Suddenly, he broke into a small smile. 

“I think I’ll take what I can get,” he said. 

He grabbed Mokuba and drew him into a one-armed hug, causing Mokuba to let out a squawk of surprise. Seto was surprised at the amusement he felt at the action. Usually he felt hostile at any person that touched his little brother. 

Mokuba managed to wiggle out of Joey’s grip and stuck his tongue out at the older boy, causing Joey to laugh. 

“Okay, I’m gonna head out now before it gets too late,” he said. 

“Alright, bye Joey!” Mokuba said, while he headed out of the kitchen. “Seto will walk you out!”

“I will not,” Seto called back, disgruntled, but Mokuba was already walking out of the room. He rolled his eyes and turned to look at Joey. 

“I am not walking you out,” he repeated. “I assume you have enough brain cells to go out the way you came.”

“I didn’t want you to walk me out anyway,” Joey shot back. However, he didn’t immediately rush out the door like Seto expected. Instead, he just stood there with his gaze lowered as he shuffled his feet nervously. He was nervous, Seto realized. Nervous wasn’t a normal look on Joey. 

“Well,” Joey suddenly said, “see ya.” 

He stuck out his hand, apparently for a handshake. Seto raised his eyebrows at the gesture, but Joey just stared at him expectantly. 

He decided to humor the other boy, and grabbed his hand. However, instead of a handshake, Joey suddenly yanked him closer and threw his other arm, still holding the cupcake tin, around Seto’s back. 

He let out a strangled noise in shock, but it was over before he could react. The other boy had pulled away, his face red, and was now hurrying towards Seto’s front door.

“Okay, bye Kaiba!” he rushed out. Seto stood there, frozen as he heard the door distantly slam. His hand felt warm where Joey had grasped it, and he felt a flush crawl up his face. He walked into the kitchen in a daze and sat down at the counter. 

In front of him was the plate of cupcakes. He grabbed another one and methodically took it out of the wrapper, then took a bite. 

Maybe he would make Joey come over again soon. Just to make him more food.   
________________________________________  
“Happy birthday Tristan!” Joey said, brandishing the plate of frosted cupcakes in front of his friend. 

“Aw, thanks man!” Tristan said, immediately grabbing one. He took a large bite, getting frosting all over his top lip. 

“Chocolate!” he cried. “My favorite!”

“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t make you your favorite flavor?” Joey joked. 

“When did you make these? Me and Yugi wanted to hang out yesterday but we couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“Ah, I made ‘em last night when I was at Kaiba’s place,” Joey replied, absentmindedly pulling out Tristan’s present. 

“Wait, what?”

Joey’s head snapped up when he realized what he had just told Tristan. His blood went cold, but he attempted to joke it off.   
“I didn’t tell you about that?” he said weakly, a sheepish grin on his face. Tristan stared at him, eyes now narrowed and calculating.

“Spill,” he said. 

Joey sighed. This was gonna be a long conversation.


End file.
